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ING Group Moves Up Final Payment of Bailout Money to Dutch Government

By Chad Bray November 5, 2014 4:53 amNovember 5, 2014 4:53 am

Photo

ING Group's building in Amersterdam.Credit Michael Kooren/Reuters

LONDON — The Dutch financial services firm ING Group said on Wednesday that it would make a final repayment six months earlier than expected of the billions of euros in state aid it received during the financial crisis.

ING, based in Amsterdam, said it planned to make its final payment of 1.03 billion euros, or about $1.29 billion, to the Dutch government on Friday.

The lender had expected to pay the final installment in May 2015.

With the final outlay, ING will have repaid the €10 billion in principal it received from the Dutch government in 2008, plus an additional €3.5 billion in interest and premiums.

“We are pleased to announce that we have received regulatory approval to bring forward our final payment of state aid, which will be paid in the coming days,” Ralph Hamers, the chief executive of ING, said in a news release. “We are grateful to the Dutch state, our customers and our shareholders for their support throughout the financial crisis and for the confidence they have placed in ING.”

ING decided to accelerate the repayment after the results of an audit of European banks by the European Central Bank, which ING said it passed “comfortably.”

The repayment to the Dutch government continues ING’s transformation into a much smaller company with a primary focus on banking.

In July, ING raised €1.5 billion in a long-anticipated initial public offering of the NN Group, its European and Japanese insurance and investment management arm. ING intends to fully divest its holdings in NN by the end of 2016.

In September, ING cut its stake in Voya Financial, formerly called ING U.S., to 32 percent. ING spun off Voya in an I.P.O. last year.

ING has also sold its online bank in the United States to Capital One Financial Corporation.

On Wednesday, ING also announced that its third-quarter profit was significantly higher than in the same quarter a year earlier, on better returns on its lending and lower provisions on bad loans.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, ING said that profit rose to €928 million, up from €128 million in the quarter a year earlier but still below analysts’ expectations.